The Crossing of the Paths
Second Edition
By MMM-AJ

A/N: Hello again loyal readers, and welcome to Edition 2 of Crossing of the Paths! This is a total rewrite of the story with only a few paragraphs or lines here and there copied; it's 99% entirely rewritten and redone material, so I am fully confident it does not constitute a violation of FFN's rule against reposting the same story. Those who've read the first edition will notice some dramatic restructurings and changes, especially the complete re-do of the entire Book naming conventions! I decided that what was called "Book 1" before was far too short to count, and made more sense to be labeled a prologue. So now this part is now the prologue, Desert Wind is Book 1, and Darkness & Light is Book 2. Take note that I have cut out the summaries of the two Pokémon movies that starred Mewtwo, I'm now assuming that all readers have a basic knowledge of Mewtwo Strikes Back and Mewtwo Returns. So if you haven't watched either film, either watch them first or go look up a plot summary of them online before you read any further. ALSO, readers should take note that this story is only built around those two movies as canon. The Mewtwo vs Genesect film is not regarded as canon in this story, as well as the terribly ugly looking mega forms given to Mewtwo in the newest generations. Please do not expect any of this to make an appearance, and do not ask about it. Aside from this, there have been many more changes including SHITLOADS of additional of content I forgot to include in the old version. Overall, I think it's a dramatic facelift to the story. Those who haven't read before won't have to face the old errors, plot holes, and inaccuracies that plagued the first edition. As of this posting in February 2023 I have the entirety of Desert Wind rewritten, but none of Darkness & Light rewritten, so I will be regularly posting DW chunks here on a weekly-ish (barring brain smooth moments or natural disasters) basis until I catch up to where I've currently left off, so buckle up and get ready for some fun!

Prologue - Departure

Part 1: Mew's Guidance

Saffron City was always dazzling at night. The headlights and tail lights of moving cars formed glowing rivers of white and red in the streets, and the youthful energy of the people enjoying the night life gave the city's atmosphere an up-tempo pulse. Above them the cubic skyscrapers stretched up toward the somber, cloud filled sky. The bright lights from the city dimly illuminated the bottom of the clouds with a soft, diffuse glow. Individual lights in the skyscrapers blinked on and off as workers arrived and left for night shifts, adding to the fluidity of the scene. It seemed like everything was in a state of constant flux except for the concrete form of the skyline itself. Perched atop the highest of the towers was the lone, silent form of a shadowed wanderer. He sat precariously on the corner of the building, unmoving as he watched the city below him. A bitingly cold breeze washed over him but he did not shiver. He was absorbed in his nightly ponderings and practically nothing could distract him.

The name that his human creators had given him was 'Mewtwo', which to him was just another reminder of his unnatural origin. The tale of his creation was long and terrible and he preferred to avoid thinking about it; he was a science experiment created in a laboratory for the purpose of becoming a weapon of war for a devious criminal syndicate. For a good portion of his life he had been tormented by the circumstances of his birth, although recently it was less of a sensitive topic and more something he simply preferred to keep out of his mind. The best way he had found to keep it out of mind was spending his days wandering about the Kanto region to explore and see the sights. He never settled in one place for more than three days, was only active at night, and always slept in hidden or inaccessible places to ensure he would never be discovered. He was especially fond of spending whole nights wandering through and observing human cities when the moonlight was bright. Tonight was one of these nights and he had chosen Saffron City because of the beautiful night lights and the lush green city park.

After sitting on the same particular building for a lengthy span of time, Mewtwo grew bored and decided to visit this park. He psychically lifted himself into the air and gently hovered down several stories, eyeing his surroundings constantly to ensure he wasn't seen. He landed on the grass next to a thin concrete path that weaved through the myriad trees. On impulse he decided to walk instead of just hovering through the forest tonight. His legs wobbled slightly, and one of the muscles in his left leg suddenly pulled tight and stung with a sharp pain.

"Ugh… leg cramps again." He thought, faltering in his step. "I really need to exercise more instead of flying everywhere."

The trees in the park were dense here and the path between them was almost like a tunnel. It was especially dark underneath the foliage but the moonlight still filtered through the branches in sparse, tiny flecks. As he passed through he noticed a group of wild Pidgey in one of the trees, snoozing. They looked so peaceful and tranquil and for a few moments he envied them. They had a comfortable home in this world, a place where they felt that they belonged, a place where they felt safe. Shaking off those depressing thoughts he continued walking, favoring the cramping leg in hopes it would stop. He savored the beauty of the place for several long minutes, taking deep breaths and gazing around at the greenery as he walked. Suddenly Mewtwo's telepathic senses detected a human approaching ahead and he leaped behind a bush alongside the path. He had been off his guard due to how long he had been lost in thought though and hadn't jumped soon enough. The person saw the bushes move as Mewtwo landed.

"Who's there?" The man shouted and walked up to the bush cautiously.

Mewtwo knew the consequences of being discovered so he quickly intruded on the man's mind and psychically rewrote his short term memory. A perplexed look crossed the man's face and he turned and returned to his jogging, having forgotten that the bush had ever moved. Mewtwo watched and waited until he was out of sight before re-emerging from the bushes. He quietly scolded himself for his carelessness and continued along a little bit longer.

Normally Mewtwo would keep his telepathic senses focused on his immediate surroundings at all times during his wanderings so that he could sense when people got close, but he had been distracted with appreciating the beauty of the park and keeping his balance on his sore, atrophied legs. He still felt his heart pounding from anxiety and decided that he had had enough of Saffron City for the night. He left the forest and took off into the air again, flying slowly until he left the city behind and then accelerating. He flew south toward the ocean west of Vermilion City. The air was bitterly cold and whipped at the cloak of dark brown cloth that he wore, but by now he was used to it.

Mewtwo landed on a small outcropping of rough stones that jutted out of the tranquil sea close to a shallow rocky shore. He settled down as best as anyone could if they were sitting on a rock the size of a dinner plate. Feeling far more at ease now that he had left the city, Mewtwo stared down at the glassy sea and the reflection of the full moon. It was a very calm night tonight, only a few tiny waves disturbed the surface and distorted the image of the moon. A lone Magikarp was swimming along barely under the surface, scavenging. Mewtwo idly watched its movements as it lazily flicked its fins and floated through the water. It slowed to a stop in order to rest in a shallow area sheltered from the waves by the rocks and its outline resolved as it settled in place. Mewtwo heard a whooshing above him and looked up to see a Pidgeot sailing through the air overhead. It looked down with its sharp eyes and spotted the Magikarp floating stationary in the calm pool. Immediately it pulled into a dive and dropped like a rock toward the water, aiming its talons for the kill. The plummeting bird pulled back up just in time to avoid striking the surface, raked the water with its claws, and lifted back up towards the sky with the Magikarp in its grip.

Mewtwo found himself pondering evolution and survival of the fittest after seeing that spectacle. Pokémon like Pidgeot were born with natural weapons such as sharp claws and a beak, but humans had practically none. How had they survived their early years as a species, when they were practically nothing but hairy pink blobs? Was it their ability to band together into large social groups? Intelligence? Were they just lucky? He shook his head and scowled, internally scolding himself for letting his train of thought go down this path. He'd seen what lay at the logical end of this style of thinking, he had witnessed it on New Island. He was wandering like this so he could banish these terrible thoughts, he couldn't allow them to continue intruding on his mind.

Mewtwo looked back down at the water, which was still rippling from the brief burst of violent predation mere moments ago. As he gazed into the beautifully clear tidal pools, a short but vivid memory came surging up into his mind, nearly drowning out his senses. He remembered the time when he had been living on the island in Purity Lake, specifically the time when Giovanni had come to recapture him. When he had crippled his body with a massive burst of telekinetic force to escape Giovanni's machines, the young human trainer named Ash had carried him to the spring and thrown him into that pure, crystalline healing water. For a brief moment while he had been sinking toward the bottom of the pool, he had felt a profound sense of peace. Logically he assumed that this feeling had been caused by the healing power of the spring as it worked on his body and caused him to regenerate, but there had been something more to it that couldn't be explained away. Some sense of familiarity had struck him as he gazed at the beautiful fronds of underwater greenery lining the bottom of the spring. It had been so striking that it had almost seemed like he had been there before. Gazing at the clear tidal pools here tonight had brought that memory flooding back.

Suddenly Mewtwo was overcome with the desire to return to Purity Canyon. It had only been a few months since he had freed his clone Pokémon companions and left that place, and he had expected the memories of it would be too bittersweet to bear returning so soon. But the compulsion was strong, he wanted to return to the spring and see just why it had felt so familiar. More importantly, it was finally a suitably compelling distraction from his wandering intrusive thoughts. Even if he didn't find the answers, maybe he could at least find peace along the way until the sun finally rose. He gathered his telekinetic energy and took off into the air once more, rocketing upwards until he had gained enough altitude that his glowing contrail of telekinetic energy wouldn't be visible to any humans watching from the ground. Then, he made for the heart of the wilderness in Johto, aiming for Mt. Quena.

When Mewtwo arrived an hour later, he was floating midair a few hundred feet above where Purity Lake had once been. The huge brown crater in the dirt that he had created was still there, gaping at him from below. It was still too recent for the forest around the crater to start seeping in to reclaim it.

"In a way, this place has left as much of a mark on me as I left on it. The difference is that the mark on me isn't visible." Mewtwo thought to himself. He then closed his eyes and focused his mind, visualizing the ancient cavern deep inside the mountain that had once been a magma chamber. In a brilliant flash of blue light he teleported down there, appearing in the chamber where he had moved the lake.

The cavern was mostly dark now, it usually had small beams of sunlight that would stream in through cracks and holes in the rocky cavern ceiling above. But since it was night there was no sunlight to illuminate the chamber, and the pale moonlight was far too weak to find its way down this deep through the cracks in the mountain. The stifling, absolute darkness of the cavern prompted him to use his psychic powers to create an orb of glowing energy above his head, bathing the chamber in soft bright white light. All around him was a beautiful, lush forest that still managed to thrive despite the low amounts of daytime light, undoubtedly because of the hyper-nourishing properties of Purity Lake. He immediately lowered the intensity of the light when he saw numerous bug Pokémon sleeping in the trees, not wanting to wake and anger them. Of course he could teleport away if a swarm of angry Beedrills assaulted him, but that would defeat the point of him coming here. He carefully hovered through the trees until he found the shores of Purity Lake.

The waters were just as beautiful and pure as the first day Mewtwo had seen them. He paused at the sandy shores of the lake and gazed out at the island in its center. He still vividly remembered coming here and trying to make it his home, though the bitter memories of Giovanni following him here began to freshly gnaw and sting at his mind. He made a quick snap judgment to at least return to the spring, even if he didn't necessarily plan to jump into it again. A shorter flight later and a quick walk through some old familiar rocky passages and he was there.

Then, indecision pounced on Mewtwo as he gazed down into the waters. The spring was crystal clear, but his dim psychic light orb wasn't casting enough of a glow for him to see far. He gazed into it for several seconds, unwilling to potentially sully the water any further by swimming in it. While he stood there at the shore mulling indecisively over what to do, his eyes suddenly caught sight of a very faint glowing pink light further along in the water. It grew brighter and brighter until it burst up through the surface. It was Mew! The legendary feline playfully bobbed up and down, encapsulated in a bubble of glowing pink telekinetic force, giggling softly as she came toward Mewtwo.

"Mewtwo! It's good to see you again!" Mew said cheerfully.

To the ears of a human, those words would have sounded like some nonsensical chattering of Mew repeating her own name, but Mewtwo could understand Pokéspeak and human tongues both equally well. He cocked his head to the side and gave her a confused look.

"You are... glad to see me? Why is that? I would have thought that you, who knows better than anyone what I nearly did to the world on New Island, would have reason not to ever want to see me again."

"But you didn't do it, silly! You learned and turned back in time before anyone was permanently hurt. That matters far more in the long run. Besides, I saw what happened here in Purity Canyon, you know! I actually live here and sleep in this spring, so I saw you helping all those people and Pokémon when those bad humans came here. You're really too hard on yourself, you're not a bad person." Mew replied in a sweet tone.

"I suppose, but wait...If you witnessed my ordeal with those humans from Team Rocket, why didn't you intervene to aid me? I was trapped inside a force field for a time, being tormented with painful electrical shocks." Mewtwo replied, clearly showing some displeasure in his tone.

Mew shook her head sadly. "I know, I know, and I'm sorry. I have spent a very long time trying to trick the humans into thinking I'm gone, and Giovanni is the last man I need knowing I'm still around. I am aware that it's selfish, but I had to hide to keep my secret. Besides, they were right about one thing, psychic powers don't work well against machines. Your three human trainer friends were in a better position to help you than I was."

Mew paused for a moment, and for a brief period of time her good cheer seemed to diminish. "And, well, I'm not too proud to admit that maybe it was a mistake not to do more, I'm sorry. I'm not perfect, and it's easy to look back with hindsight and realize what you could have done differently."

Mewtwo felt appeased by this response, he understood the painful nature of hindsight. He looked down at the waters of the spring again and replied.

"I understand. I made my fair share of mistakes as well; I could have tried to intrude directly on Giovanni's mind in order to stop him when he first deployed his machines, before the attack started in full. I was blinded by my own anger, a problem that seems to keep recurring with me."

Mew gave him a sympathetic look and turned her head to the side, then floated over and sat on his left shoulder, allowing her telekinetic bubble to vanish. "Hey, it's alright though. You got through it ok, and so did everyone else. That's worth celebrating I think! Now thanks to you, my home is even safer from humans than before!"

Mewtwo nodded and said "I suppose that is true. I just fear what may happen if someone else manages to create machines similar to the ones Giovanni used to entrap me. How would I escape then, especially if I am alone?"

Mew patted his head with one tiny paw and said "Wellllll, I might know a trick that could help you! You know how to teleport with your psychic power, right?"

"Yes, it is a simple thing that even an Abra can do. I tried it while I was trapped though, the force fields blocked it."

Mew nodded and then took off from Mewtwo's shoulder, floating in front of him instead. "Well this trick is sorta similar to teleporting in a way, but it's not the same. It might still get you out of a bind, especially if a human catches you in a Pokéball. It's a way to open a rift in the fabric of space and time, originally meant for use by a couple of other special Pokémon who watch over the world and keep it safe. I keep it as my emergency escape card, but I think I can teach it to you too now."

Mewtwo perked up a bit at this. He looked up from the water of the spring and gave Mew a look of gratitude and interest. "This sounds utterly invaluable, I would be deeply grateful for a chance to learn it."

"Alright! It's a bit hard to describe with words, so would it be alright if I used telepathy to send the knowledge right to your mind? I promise I won't go poking around in there!" Mew chirped, sounding especially excited.

Mewtwo paused briefly, hesitating for just a second, then nodded. "Very well, you may."

Mewtwo lowered all the mental defenses and barriers he kept around his mind, and then he felt a gentle and cautious telepathic probing from Mew. She was clearly taking great pains to avoid intruding far, which Mewtwo certainly appreciated given how easy it was to violate someone's privacy via telepathy. A stream of knowledge began to flow across the link, instructing him as thoroughly as a few years of repeated lessons would. Like any physical skill, psionics could be practiced until an innate reflexive mastery was attained, almost like muscle memory. Any such skill could also be rapidly taught via a direct telepathic link, going right from zero to fully trained in a matter of moments. It wasn't the first time he'd learned new abilities this way, he'd done it repeatedly during his time training with Team Rocket before realizing Giovanni was planning to use him as a slave. He'd learned from all the strongest and most rigorously trained psychic Pokémon that the Rockets could muster, learning in mere days what would have taken years of focus and training to get down with precision. Mew was thankfully different than all those he had learned from before, her mental presence was brimming with compassion and wisdom whereas the others had felt numb and empty. He realized now that perhaps that should have been his first warning sign that the Rockets had been planning to break his will like they had done to all the other Pokémon they possessed. At any rate, it took mere moments to transmit all the information, and then Mew gently broke off the telepathic link.

"There. Feel like you've got the hang of it?" She asked.

"I... I think so. Let me try it." Mewtwo replied, and was about to channel the energy to attempt it when Mew interrupted him.

"No, don't! There's a reason why I don't use this except in emergencies. The portal you open leads to the in-between space. It's sorta like the place between realities. It's really crazy dangerous, there's a lot of loose energy bouncing around in there that can kill you if you touch it. Plus there's no air in there. So if you do go in, make sure you have a shield around yourself, and don't stay long. If you open the gate down here in the atmosphere it will suck a bunch of air in and pull everything around it inside. I sent you the knowledge of how to get back home if you do get lost in there too, but remember that if you wander into another universe that there's no guarantee any of them will be similar to ours!" Mew warned him.

Mewtwo nodded and replied, "I understand. Thank you. Your help does mean a lot to me."

"You deserve to live peacefully and safely just as much as the rest of us Mewtwo, even if you still feel like you don't belong. Now come on, let's do something fun! Wanna race me flying in a circuit around the lake? No teleports!" Mew said with a cheery laugh.

Mewtwo paused, his internal gut reaction was that this would be undignified and silly. But perhaps, maybe he needed something silly and out of character for him, if only to keep him occupied for awhile longer. "Very well, I accept your challenge. It will be... enjoyable to compete with you in something different than battle."

"Great! Last one to get back to this spot on the shore is a rotten Exeggcute!" Mew replied, drawing a big X in the sand with her tail before taking off like a shot!

Part 2: Discovery

It had been a week now since Mewtwo had visited Purity Canyon, and while the glow of Mew's warmth and kindness still lingered in the back of Mewtwo's mind, idleness was once again becoming his foe. He had taken to traveling around both Kanto and Johto, finding Team Rocket facilities and sabotaging them by wiping the memories of the humans and freeing their Pokémon. He knew this was helping to make a positive impact on the world, but the sheer size of the criminal syndicate was daunting and dismaying. Just how many humans could be tempted into such vile behavior anyway? He was flying away from a base that he'd just raided in the middle of Celadon City now, thoughts turning to a darker flavor once more. What did it even say about humanity that so many hundreds, or even thousands of these people would be willing to stoop to slavery and murder to make a quick, easy profit? He caught sight of the first pinkish glow of sunrise appearing on the horizon and heaved a heavy sigh. Dawn was coming, it was time for him to return to his meager little home and sleep.

Mewtwo flew quickly back towards his lair, which was a small cave with its entrance hidden underwater in a lake. The cave still had air pressure that prevented it from flooding and Mewtwo was able to use his usual psychic air bubble to get in without drowning. He dove down into the lake, surfaced inside the cave, and then collapsed exhausted on a pile of hay that he had brought with him when he made it his home. It wasn't long before he slipped into a dreamless sleep.

Something was about to go very wrong however; a few hours after Mewtwo drifted off a pair of scuba divers came across the underwater cave's entrance during a dive to observe and study the native water type Pokémon living in the lake. They shot each other a glance and then climbed up inside, poking their heads above the surface. The two men immediately saw Mewtwo sprawled across his bed, snoozing like a baby a dozen feet away from the pool where they had arrived.

"Wow Larry! Look at that Pokémon! I wonder what kind it is?" One of the men said quietly, trying not to wake Mewtwo.

"I'm no trainer, but I can guess it's not a water Pokémon. Look, no fins, no gills, and it looks like it walks on its hind legs." The other man replied.

Mewtwo stirred and the divers fearfully ducked back under. They were no trainers, they knew they had no real way to fight this one if it decided to attack them. They waited a couple of moments before poking their heads up for another look. Mewtwo had rolled over, but was still asleep.

"We had better not wake it up, it looks fearsome." Larry whispered.

"We should tell Professor Oak about this!"

"Right!" They both dove below the surface and swam back towards their boat.

A couple hours later, in the middle of the day, three more scuba divers appeared at the entrance of Mewtwo's lair. They were Professor Oak and two of his assistants.

"Wow! Look at that Professor! This is one for the record books!" The shorter aide said.

Professor Oak shushed the aide to prevent him from waking Mewtwo and said "This is amazing, but let's try not to wake it in case it's aggressive. I'll get out my scanner."

Oak quietly opened a waterproof plastic bag and pulled out a small handheld scanning device that was meant to ascertain basic information about Pokémon. The device was one of his earlier prototypes of the Pokédex, all the finished copies of which had since been given out to promising young aspiring trainers. The device was made of older grey plastic which was smudged and stained with age, and it lacked the vocal synthesizer unit that finished Pokédex models had. It simply made a primitive electronic chirp and gave a readout of some basic information on its older liquid-crystal display screen.

"It indicates a Pokémon of the Psychic type… and good lord! Its power is off the scale! This Pokémon could make things very uncomfortable for us if it were to awaken." The Professor whispered urgently, inching back underwater.

The two aides nodded fearfully and followed him down, more than happy to retreat before Mewtwo awoke. The three of them left the cave in a hurry; the professor had collected enough data and they felt the need to inform the league of Mewtwo's presence. He slept peacefully for several more hours undisturbed and completely unaware of what had taken place.

Mewtwo eventually awoke on his own a few hours after nightfall. He rubbed his eyes, sat up, and frowned. He had a bad feeling about something, but couldn't quite tell why. Living in this little cave meant that he couldn't hear the Houndour howl at nightfall to wake him up, making it especially easy to sleep in. His stomach rumbled insistently to remind him of his need for food so he decided to put that sinking feeling out of his mind and leave the cave to go find some breakfast. He floated out of his cave using the air bubble again, trying to decide which town or city to go to in order to steal some food. Much to his sudden shock though, as soon as Mewtwo broke free of the surface of the lake he spotted a large group of campsites all along the lake's shoreline. There were dozens upon dozens of tents, some with active campfires burning, and the place was swarming with humans! They immediately spotted him and one of them pointed at him before he could cloak himself.

"There it is!" Came the cry from the young teenage trainer who had trained his finger upon Mewtwo.

"Ugh, fantastic! How did this happen?" Mewtwo exclaimed in horrified shock.

For a brief moment Mewtwo was too paralyzed by shock to react, and a group of about 10 trainers scrabbled to pull out and toss a flurry of Pokéballs of various types up towards him. At the very least he instinctively managed to react by raising a psychic shield to deflect the entire lot. As the commotion woke up more humans that had been sleeping in their tents the mob rapidly began to grow, some still halfway stuck in sleeping bags as they scrambled for a chance to capture him. The trainers also began releasing their own Pokémon, though most were thankfully ground-bound and unable to reach him. He flew upwards a bit and began to focus, gathering his strength to attempt to put these humans and their partners to sleep so that he could erase their memories, just like he had done to the members of Team Rocket. Unfortunately, a fair number of the people in this group were actually competent trainers and not just moronic thugs; several of them unleashed flying type Pokémon that dove through the air and attacked with gusts of air and diving strikes! His shield again deflected their attacks, but the blows were strong enough to send him flying backward inside the shield, breaking his concentration. He tried flying up further and cloaking himself for his second attempt, but there were several Murkrow and Honchkrow Pokémon in the attacking group that could see through his psychic trickery thanks to their Dark Type advantage. Mewtwo barely had a chance to look into the minds of a few of the humans below before a Honchkrow's Night Slash attack shattered his psychic barrier and cut a nasty gash across his chest. Feeling as though he had no choice, Mewtwo performed an emergency teleport to escape the scene before he could actually fall far enough to be captured.

Mewtwo reappeared sitting on a tree branch partway up a tree in the forest not far from the lake. He needed a few moments to recuperate after taking a blow that solid. He took a few deep breaths and then put one hand on the bleeding wound on his chest so that he could use Recover on himself. The wound swiftly sealed up and vanished, not leaving so much as a scar, but his pride still stung from the perceived defeat. He had glanced just long enough into the minds of some of those trainers to know how they had found him too. It was already too late, he had been fully discovered and news was all over Kanto and Johto alike! There were far too many people now aware of his existence for him to ever mindwipe them all.

"Blasted dark types! Of course these humans would have them. What am I going to do now? They're going to pursue me to the ends of the Earth!" Mewtwo thought to himself.

Suddenly, the branch Mewtwo was sitting on snapped, causing him to tumble out of the tree and land on his stomach with a pronounced thud. He picked himself up and looked straight into the eyes of another trainer who was only standing a few inches away from him. She pulled out an Ultra ball and wound her arm back to hurl it at him, but he teleported away again before it had a chance to leave her hand.

Mewtwo found solace atop a boulder on the side of Mt. Moon, spending his time thinking of how to get away from the humans. He couldn't cloak himself while he slept, which he knew was probably the main factor in his discovery. He would have to sleep in even more remote locations from now on and he might never be able to wander a human city again. He was engrossed in these thoughts for a painfully indeterminate amount of time before he was found by another human. Mewtwo sensed this one approaching far ahead of time thankfully, but since this human was alone he let him get close. Perhaps he could try to intimidate the trainer and it would discourage at least some portion of the throng of peers. He waited until he heard a Pokéball sailing through the air towards him before moving and ducked effortlessly to avoid it. He turned to see the owner of the ball; a young teenage human with spiky brown hair emerged from behind a large rock brandishing several more Pokéballs. He wore a purple shirt, blue jeans, and an odd golden medallion around his neck. Something about the trainer struck Mewtwo as oddly familiar, but for now he couldn't quite put his finger on it. The trainer shot Mewtwo a confident and competitive grin.

"Draw!" The trainer shouted, tossing an Ultra Ball at him.

Mewtwo created a small orb of psychic energy barely bigger in diameter than a nickel and flicked it to intercept the Ultra Ball. They collided in midair and the Ultra Ball shattered into tiny bits, leaving nothing but a few small shards of plastic and metal shrapnel that littered the ground in front of him and sprayed his feet.

"Tell me, trainer, isn't it customary to use of one of your own Pokémon to try and weaken me before throwing one of those?" Mewtwo asked condescendingly

"True, but word is that you're a runner. You'd get away from me before I could launch a serious attack!" The trainer said, and then threw five more Ultra Balls at once.

Mewtwo deflected them with a psychic barrier and laughed. "Too bad for you that those rumors are indeed true, but I want to show you something else I can do. Something I want you to carry word of back to all your human friends."

Mewtwo didn't want to actually harm the kid, but he needed to make an impression. So instead of attacking the young man, Mewtwo psychically implanted a terrifying vision in his mind of himself defeating the trainer, destroying all his gear, and taunting him terribly. For good measure he then teleported the trainer's backpack full of gear off of him and into a nearby river in order to make the vision believable. It was disheartening and he felt internally disgusted with himself, but it was perhaps the mildest first step he could take. Before the human could completely return from the vision to reality, Mewtwo once again teleported away, hoping he could find another suitably isolated hiding place.

Part 3: Departure

It had been three days now since Mewtwo had been discovered by the general public, and unfortunately things weren't getting any better. His little illusion ploy with the purple-shirted trainer had done absolutely nothing to stem the tide of ambitious, hot-headed humans pursuing him. In fact, the only reason he had managed to sleep at all was through the liberal use of teleportation to reach even more remote locations. Unfortunately, none of the spots he had found so far were suitable for long term habitation. He knew that he could never sleep in his lake cavern home again, so he had abandoned his meager belongings and set off in search of a new home somewhere else.

The idea of returning to Purity Canyon again was whispering in the back of his mind, but he decided that it wasn't worth the risk of potentially leading humans to Mew's home. He initially avoided all the major towns and cities, but soon noticed that the trainers seemed to be intentionally searching remote wildlands for him but neglecting any settled areas. It seemed like they were assuming he avoided civilization, a fact he began to use to his advantage. This evening he was searching in the outskirts of Cerulean City when he discovered a small cave mouth that opened up near the shore of a river just north of the city limits. The entrance was visibly unstable; Mewtwo spotted a massive cluster of heavy boulders and loose stones sitting precariously on the hillside above the cave entrance. A cursory scan with his telepathy allowed Mewtwo to sense the presence of multiple powerful wild Pokémon inside, adding to the value of the place as a safe hideaway. He could easily persuade the cave's other wild inhabitants to leave him be, and they would provide an effective deterrent should any humans figure out a way past what he was about to do.

Mewtwo landed inside the cave mouth and walked in deeply enough to be reasonably clear, then reached out with telekinesis and began to violently shake the hillside, knocking free the substrate of loose rocks. A loud rumble sounded the beginnings of a landslide, which sent sprays of dust, then stones, and then massive boulders tumbling down the rocky hill. The sunlight that once poured in through the maw of the cavern was instantly quenched by the roaring torrent of silt and stone. Mewtwo felt a series of sharp vibration shocks in the floor as an especially huge boulder came to rest in front of the entrance, sealing it completely.

Mewtwo breathed a brief sigh of relief as he watched the dust settle, but it didn't take long before the sound of roaring Pokémon disrupted the silence. The sounds were deep enough in the cave that Mewtwo knew he had a minute or two before the territorial beasts arrived to investigate the ruckus. He only needed a few seconds though; it took very little time for him raise his psychic shield and create an orb of light for him to see by. He didn't intend to hide himself; now was the time for him to establish himself at the top of the pecking order. He began to walk confidently deeper into the cavern, seeking out his opponents.

Before long Mewtwo came face to face with a Parasect, a Machoke, and a Magneton. He frowned a bit at the sight of the Magneton, steel types were always so damn problematic.

"This is our cave, outsider! Leave now before we force you to leave!" The Machoke barked angrily in Pokéspeak.

"I only wish to hide here from humans, I will not attack you or take much space if you leave me be." Mewtwo replied dispassionately.

Machoke snarled, clearly not impressed by the fact that Mewtwo showed no signs of being intimidated by his posturing. He charged at Mewtwo recklessly, shouting "Not good enough!"

Mewtwo rolled his eyes ever so slightly and then raised one glowing hand to point at him. Machoke stumbled to a stop, his eyes going blank and his jaw slackening. Parasect came charging in next, but met the exact same fate. Magneton was a bit more difficult since steel types resisted mind control, so it shuddered and managed to fire off a searing bolt of lightning from the magnets on its body. Mewtwo had already raised his shield though, so the bolt harmlessly bounced off and dissipated. Mewtwo then pulled the strings on his little Machoke puppet and directed him to turn and attack his metallic comrade. Machoke's fist slammed into the bottom left third of Magneton's body, damaging its eye and denting the metal considerably. It sailed backwards and slammed into the wall from the force of the punch, fainting already due to the force of the super-effective blow.

"Now then gentlemen, I'd like your assistance in convincing your comrades to stand down as well. Come with me please." Mewtwo said.

"Yes sir." Machoke and Parasect replied in dull monotone voices, then turned to trudge along behind him.

At least a dozen more battles unfolded in the exact same way over the next hour or so. Every battle seemed to go the same too, with Mewtwo mind controlling every single Pokémon that his powers were capable of, then siccing his minions on the ones he couldn't. Before long he had either subdued or recruited the entire cave's population, and from there he simply ordered them to merely ignore him from now on while resuming guarding the cave, business as usual. From there, he spent even more time using his telekinesis to set up a maze inside the cavern using massive heavy stones and chunks of fence debris that had been lying around. At the very bottom of the cave he finally settled down to rest. He hadn't brought a replacement for his old hay pile so unfortunately he had to sleep on the bare rock, but he had expended so much energy fighting and building that he simply passed out after five minutes and slept away the entire day.

For four days it seemed like Mewtwo had finally found a safe place to live. The cave, which he had discovered was named Cerulean Cave, was close enough to a city to be an unlikely search target for the Trainers who were specifically looking for him, but far enough that average everyday human foot traffic didn't come close. The boulders blocking the entrance had been more than enough deterrence to keep out the occasional curious kids who would wander around the shores of the river fishing for Goldeen and poking around for anything interesting. By now Mewtwo had managed to steal a proper mattress to sleep on, a wind-up alarm clock that didn't need electricity, and even a small selection of human books to read during his spare time. It was beginning to feel like home, and today he was planning to go out and steal a large supply of non-perishable foods that he could store in case the search for him got intense enough to trap him inside long term.

Mewtwo awoke to the loud, insistent metallic dinging of his alarm clock at 9PM, grumbling and rubbing his eyes. He sat up and saw several wild Pokémon staring at him from the distance in the cave, obviously perturbed by the alarm too. He shot them a glare, using a touch of energy to make his eyes glow menacingly, and they took the hint and sprinted away. He took a drink from the fresh river water that flowed through the cave, then stretched and prepared to leave. Without any special fanfare he raised a psychic cloak and simply teleported out of the cavern, not bothering to traverse the maze he had built.

Four hours later Mewtwo returned to the cave via teleport once more, lighting his chamber with his psychic light orb trick and carrying a huge pallet of assorted canned foods he had assembled. He had gone around Cerulean City, teleporting inside warehouses and stealing small portions of food cargo shipments bound for grocery stores. He didn't steal enough from any one place to raise any alarms, and had now gathered enough food for months. As he set down the pallet on the floor in his chamber though, his psychic senses immediately detected something amiss. The energy in the cavern was...different tonight.

He could psychically sense emotions sometimes when they were strong enough, and right now the air was laced with a thick haze of aggression and anger. He immediately put two and two together and realized that a human had probably infiltrated his cavern, and a spike of red hot anger jolted through his mind.

"Is nowhere on this accursed planet safe?! I just finished making this place secure and comfortable! Do I need some sort of solid sphere of titanium to live in?!" He thought to himself silently, his mental voice a barely suppressed rant.

The logical side of Mewtwo's mind knew he should simply pick up his supplies and teleport away to try finding another home, but the frustration from being hunted endlessly and treated as a game trophy by humanity was finally coming to a boil. He'd allowed himself the foolishness of starting to grow attached to this cavern and in his enraged mindset, it was finally time to draw a line. He telekinetically shoved his food and bed into a corner of the chamber out of view, then turned to face the one single passage that the human was going to come down.

It wasn't long until the flickering light of a flashlight came down the passage toward Mewtwo. The human stepped into the illumination cast by Mewtwo's psychic light orb and a flash of recognition lit up Mewtwo's mind. It was the same purple shirted human as before! The one who he had tried to intimidate with horrible psychic visions several days ago. He was wearing the same outfit as before, but he also had some sort of strange, bulky metallic hat on his head. Alongside him was an Umbreon, which one could easily assume was one of his partner Pokémon. The human grinned and locked eyes with Mewtwo, not intimidated in the slightest by the way his eyes were glowing with fury.

"You're a really elusive one, you know. Thankfully I know how to use one psychic Pokémon to track another, and my Alakazam is very talented at it."

"So in other words, I'm going to have to take more decisive measures to prevent you from finding me again!" Mewtwo growled angrily.

Mewtwo raised one hand, intending to take control over the human's mind directly this time. The metallic device on his head made a loud electrical beep though, generating a small localized field of Dark Type energy around the trainer's head that deflected Mewtwo's telepathy.

The trainer's snide grin only grew wider as he watched the psychic attack fail. "After our last encounter, I asked my gramps for help and he cooked up this handy machine that protects my brain from psychic attacks. You won't be messing with my mind so easily this time!"

"Hmph, impressive technology. But it's not a perfect solution when I can merely knock it off of your head." Mewtwo replied with a deep scowl.

Mewtwo raised one hand and prepared to simply pick up the trainer's body and turn him upside-down so that the device would fall off. Before he could complete the action however, the trainer barked out "Umbreon, use Dark Pulse!"

The diminutive Pokémon charged forward just as Mewtwo reached out to grasp the trainer's heels with telekinesis. Mewtwo spotted the approach and started to switch gears to prepare an Aura Sphere attack, but Umbreon was shockingly fast and had the drop on him. Umbreon leaped up into the air at Mewtwo and emitted a burst of murky blackness in a spherical pattern. The dark energy passed right through Mewtwo's psychic barrier as if it wasn't even there and seared the skin on his body, singing off the thin layer of fur. He reeled backwards and cringed from the pain coursing through him.

Blinding rage began to bubble up once again inside of Mewtwo, filling his vision with a diffuse red. His conscious mind receded as the violent side came forward, just as his creators had designed. This time though the Umbreon no longer had the drop on him; it had to take a few moments to land and gather itself after expending all that energy. That brief pause was just barely enough time for Mewtwo to let loose with Aura Sphere. A glowing blue orb of power soared from his hands and struck the Umbreon square in its flank, sending it tumbling to the ground unconscious.

Mewtwo didn't even have a chance to savor his victory though, his human adversary had taken advantage of his inattention and launched some sort of Pokéball at him. Mewtwo didn't even see it until it collided with his back and the glowing energy was encompassing him. He barely had time to shout in surprise before the device completely swallowed him.

The interior of the Pokéball was a barren plastic lined with metallic meshes designed to act as a Faraday cage, and it was dimly lit so that he could just barely see, but could also sleep if he chose. He could sense a powerful force field of some sort lining the interior of the ball so he did the first thing that his enraged mind could think of, he lashed out at it with as much energy as he could muster. Incredibly, the force field managed to intensify itself to match his attack! It seemed impossible, how was it drawing that much power? It seemed completely improbable to store that much energy in even the most advanced modern batteries! Mewtwo tried again and again, getting the same results each time, and he began to feel his stores of psychic power ebbing from so many high-powered bursts. Nothing was working! He was too enraged to stop though, he kept going and going and going until he lacked the power to try again, and he was reduced to a panting, exhausted mess. He slumped over on the floor and wheezed, mentally ranting and raving until he passed out from the exhaustion.

Mewtwo didn't know how long he had been out, but when he came back to consciousness he could tell it had been several hours just judging by how much of his energy had regenerated. It usually took at least 8 hours of full restful sleep to get him to full when he tapped out, and he sensed he was almost running on a half tank. Memories of his capture came flooding back and he was about to try smashing the ball open with telekinesis again when he remembered just how ineffective that had been.

"You slave driving monster!" Mewtwo bellowed angrily, beating his fists against the floor.

A feeling of hopelessness and despair washed over Mewtwo, and in the absence of literally anything that could possibly distract him from his situation, he sat in silence and percolated in his own rage. The trainer would have to open the ball eventually, especially since he seemed to be the type who would want to show off his latest and greatest trophy to his competitors. Then, when the emotional cloud had somewhat cleared out of Mewtwo's mind, he remembered the portal trick that Mew had taught him and felt a surge of relief. He started to draw on his regenerated power and focused on creating the portal, but was interrupted when the ball suddenly opened and released him back into the world.

Mewtwo reappeared atop the peak of Indigo Plateau, the seat of power for the Pokémon League in Kanto. The sun was setting gorgeously over the mountains behind the plateau, bathing the entire area in a beautiful gradient of warm oranges and reds. The familiar face of the human who had captured Mewtwo was there to greet him; he was standing near the edge of the plateau and giving Mewtwo the most smug, insufferable grin imaginable.

"The technology that goes into making one of these Master Balls is pretty impressive! It's probably the only thing that could hope to contain a Pokémon as powerful as you! I hope you're ready, because we're going to be taking on the Elite Four together."

Suddenly Mewtwo felt a flicker of recognition flash through his mind as he stared at his trainer. He had felt a vague sense of familiarity the last few times they'd encountered each other, but he'd been too distracted by his own escape attempts to pin down the human's identity. Now he remembered that the human's name was Gary and he had battled with Mewtwo once back when Mewtwo was still working under Giovanni's control and testing his powers against any top tier challengers that the Rockets could find. Gary had been one of those challengers, and Mewtwo had brushed him aside as easily as all the others. Apparently Gary had been tracking him down ever since. Perhaps he had been motivated for vengeance since Mewtwo had managed to kill the boy's Raticate during the course of their first battle. Giovanni had ordered it of course, it was obvious now that he had wanted to teach Mewtwo to be completely merciless even against fainted foes, but that incident had been one of the sources of the first seeds of doubt that eventually led Mewtwo to rebel against his control. Mewtwo stood there silently, staring at Gary as he recalled those times.

"Well, come on! What's wrong? Where'd your vicious fury go? I know you're capable of being a death machine, so let's go turn that to a constructive end for once!" Gary snapped, a hint of contempt in his tone.

That contempt was perhaps understandable now, considering what Mewtwo had done to the guy back then. But it almost immediately reawakened the dormant fury that had been briefly set aside during that flash of memory. Glowing psychic power flared to life around Mewtwo's body and he sneered angrily at him.

"What makes you think that I'm going to obey you, human? Just because your little metal orb managed to temporarily imprison me does not mean that I am under any obligation to be your personal slave! I know very well that trainers earn obedience and respect from their Pokémon partners by besting them in a fair battle, but I am not beholden to your traditions! I don't care how many shiny metal badges you possess, you did not come close to earning anything resembling respect by hurling that miniature cheating device at me!" Mewtwo ranted.

Gary rounded on Mewtwo angrily, still completely trusting of his helmet to protect him from the danger staring him in the face. "Oh, well I guess it's mutual then, since you certainly didn't earn much respect from me by killing my friend!"

Mewtwo audibly growled now, his eyes beginning to glow as well. "I was being manipulated by that human monster Giovanni, you should know firsthand how vile and oppressive he and his sycophantic thugs were! But I suppose I shouldn't expect someone as consistently foolish as yourself to understand that I may have changed and grown to regret my past. Now I'm going to say this just once, human: release me or I shall remove that helmet and make you release me!"

Gary began to reach for the Master Ball again, intent on recalling Mewtwo back to his prison. Mewtwo noticed however, and with a reflexive burst of power he grabbed onto Gary's wrists with telekinesis and restrained him.

"Fat chance, I know a liar when I see one! I can tell by your eyes. You can call yourself a reformed and penitent Pokémon all you want, but I remember that look in your eyes when you killed Raticate. It's the same look you have now. You're no more reformed than a murderer who's already plotting his next kill. I need to keep you under control for the sake of the world so you can't kill anyone else!" Gary retorted, just as fearless as ever.

Mewtwo plucked Gary up by the collar of his shirt with telekinesis and brought him up close so he could look him right in the eye.

"Don't you feed me this pathetic pretense of altruism! If you were some heroic warden keeping me locked away for the good of humankind then you would have let me rot away safely inside that accursed ball for the rest of my natural life. You can read the fury in my eyes all you want, but I am an actual psychic. I can read your thoughts and I can practically taste it: you hunger for power, fame, status, and glory! Your little guardian act is just how you justify my enslavement. Now this is your last chance, RELEASE ME!"

For a brief moment, Mewtwo could sense Gary starting to falter. Mewtwo had seen through him and hit the painful little vein of truth underneath. But then a look of new resolve came over Gary, and he suddenly sneered right back at Mewtwo again.

"Maybe you're right, Mewtwo. Maybe I do want to be a Pokémon Master, fine. Fair enough. I won't lie about that, but you should be able to sense that it doesn't make my other desires to keep my friends and family safe from you any less valid. So there, you have my act gone at least, you have my full honesty on top of having me trapped by my neck. But I still have you just as well trapped, if not moreso. You want to know why, kittyboy? If you want to maintain your own little charade of being a remorseful goody-two-shoes, then you're out of options. This helmet is glued to my head, so you're not going to be psychically controlling me, and if you try to teleport away my Alakazam will track you down again and again. You got no choice, either you give in and follow my commands, or you kill me and are forced to admit to yourself that you're still a murderer. Because I'm not going to release you, I'm going to recall you back into that Master Ball the moment you let go of me and we're going in there to challenge the league. So what's it going to be, buddy? You want to swallow that gigantic pride of yours and work with me, or are you going to give in and add to the blood on your hands?"

Mewtwo froze. The ramifications of the hand that Gary had just played sent icy chills of horror flooding through his veins. All the glow faded from his eyes at once, followed by his aura dying down to nothing. No! No no no! This couldn't be! His mind tried desperately to come up with an alternative for a few agonizing seconds. For a few more moments he gave serious consideration to giving in and just working with Gary for awhile. An idea struck him at that point; he could go along with Gary's plan and just use Mew's portal technique next time he had some downtime inside the Pokéball. Of course! Relief flooded back through Mewtwo's veins and he released Gary's hands, setting him back down on his feet again. He was just about to tell Gary that he would obey, but then Gary took things one step too far. He gave Mewtwo that huge smug grin again and started to taunt him.

"Good. I guess you're not as dumb as I thought, despite just being a bloodthirsty war machine. If you want to make amends for Raticate then you'd better be ready to put every other trainer under my boot!"

In that moment, Mewtwo saw in Gary that same lust for power that he had seen in Giovanni. His mind flashed back to all the times that Giovanni stood over him, gloating about his power and his plans to rule the world with an iron fist. These flashbacks took Mewtwo back to the torturously painful anti-psionic containment sphere that Giovanni had imprisoned him in. It caused him to remember all the hopelessness and agony that Giovanni had tried to break his spirit with. All of Mewtwo's rage came roaring right back to the surface, causing him to forget his plans to escape next time he was returned to the Master Ball. A bright red aura of psychic energy flared out around him as the anger swallowed him up once more, and in that terrible rage he yelled out the same words that he had once cried at the face of Giovanni.

"This cannot be my destiny!"

Then, all of the pretense of peace and self control vanished from Mewtwo's mind, replaced by the singular desire to escape his imprisonment. No longer in control of himself, Mewtwo charged a shadow ball in his hands and hurled it at Gary. The helmet unfortunately only protected Gary's head, so when the shadow ball struck him in the torso he doubled over and crumpled to his knees. Humans weren't really capable of taking hits like Pokémon were, so when the orb struck him with the full brunt of Mewtwo's psychic might it punched a hole clean through Gary's stomach, cauterizing the wound that it left behind. Unable to support himself due to the pain and shock, Gary rolled backwards and tumbled off of the cliff behind him and fell to his death.

Suddenly it was over. Like an intravenous injection of ice water right into the bloodstream, the horror of what Mewtwo had just done instantly quenched the flames of his fury. Mewtwo stood there in utter shock, initially unable to comprehend the gravity of his deed. Of course this wasn't even the first life he had ever taken, especially if one counted the time that the human Ash dove into the middle of his battle with Mew before being subsequently brought back from the claws of death. But this time Mewtwo actually understood the heinous nature of killing, he had moved past the callousness with which he had treated it before. When the full realization of the act set in, he clenched his gut, bent over, and vomited onto the grassy ground in front of him.

This time it was too late. This time there were no other Pokémon around to save his victim with miraculous healing tears. The utter finality of it was like a great dark hand strangling the breath out of him. He struggled to stand once his body finished forcing him to dump his stomach contents, and he bitterly chuckled to himself.

"You were right, Gary. I am a sham. My penitence was a charade in the end. At least you admitted to your own charade, you were honest. If only you hadn't built your entire bluff around me trying to live up to my own uselessly fragile ideals."

Mewtwo paused for a moment, giving just a few moments of silence. He then bent down and picked up the Master Ball, examining it and seeing that its little indicator lights were still active. He then walked over to the cliff that Gary had fallen down and stared down there, barely able to make him out. Bitterly, he reached out with telekinesis to tap the release buttons on all the Pokéballs attached to his belt to free them all. He then averted his gaze, unable to bear the prospect of watching Gary's Pokémon mourn his death. He tapped the release button on the Master Ball still bound to him, severing that bind. Then, to prevent it being used against any other Pokémon, he crushed it into a crumpled mass with his telekinesis. It had only been built to take pressure from the inside, not the outside, so it imploded into a sparking, crumpled ruin. Without any further words Mewtwo wound his arm back and hurled the ruined ball down the cliff too. He couldn't conjure any other words or deeds, so Mewtwo simply turned and took flight, soaring straight up away from Indigo Plateau.

The guilt and shame clawing at Mewtwo's mind eroded away his clarity as he flew, and suddenly a simple and chillingly final idea came to Mewtwo. He remembered that Mew had warned him that her little escape trick could take him out of reality, into the space between universes, and if he wasn't careful he could end up getting lost out there. The thought was now occurring that maybe Mewtwo shouldn't find his way back. Maybe he could simply open that gateway and leave this world entirely. It would get him away from the endless procession of trainers that sought to enslave him, but more importantly it would safely isolate humans from his violent spurts of murderous rage. If there was any more suiting punishment for Mewtwo that didn't involve anything blatantly suicidal, he couldn't think of it. He would eventually, finally find a peaceful home away from humanity, and he'd never be able to endanger the lives of anyone else again. The snap decision was made and Mewtwo turned to fly straight up toward space, heeding Mew's warning not to open the gateway in the atmosphere.

Mewtwo didn't own any material goods worth taking with him, he didn't consider his canned food, alarm clock, books and hay pile worth the effort to carry, so there was no real reason for him to return to his hideout before leaving. He began to pick up speed and then raised an air bubble around himself as the air began to grow thin. It only took a few minutes at his maximum velocity to exit the atmosphere, and a sudden whim caused him to come to a stop. From his current position in orbit Mewtwo could see the terminator line between night and day creeping across the border between Kanto and Johto now, and the light of the sun was glinting brightly off of the Sea of Japan in the East. He could also see flickering patterns of city light on the darker side of the island almost like the stars at night.

Mewtwo sighed and turned away so that he could begin focusing his energy on the task at hand. He called forth a portion of his reserve power to accomplish this task; tuning it to the precise frequency that Mew had taught him. This was the first time that he had actually done this so he took plenty of extra time to make sure he did it right. His body glowed brilliantly as he concentrated and soon a little mote of glowing energy flickered on in front of him. Acting quickly to keep that pinpoint rift from closing he channeled a massive amount of his power into it, trying to shunt it open with raw psychic effort. His whole form seemed to tense as he poured such a huge amount of power into it, and after a few seconds it grew into a basketball sized glowing hole in the fabric of the Universe. At that moment something popped into Mewtwo's mind, he had forgotten to say goodbye to that one trainer. That black-haired one named Ash that had helped him so many times. He couldn't afford to turn back now that the portal was almost open, so instead he used his telepathy to send a few words of goodbye to him down on the surface. When the portal was finally wide enough for him to fit through, he took one more glimpse before flying through. At that exact moment he felt a small glimmer of regret that yanked on his mind, urging him to turn back. But the portal had already snapped shut behind him, there was no turning back now.